The biggest at-bat for the Tigers was Kerry Carpenter's in the fifth. Trailing 4-0, they had runners on the corners and one of the game's best hitters against right-handed pitchers at the plate. It was the matchup they wanted.
Mariners starter Logan Gilbert fed Carpenter nothing but off-speed pitches until Carpenter grounded out on a slider. The Tigers wouldn't threaten again until they were down 8-1 in the ninth in their eventual 8-4 loss in Game 3 of the ALDS that pushed their season to the brink.
"My approach off of him was like it is off everybody: I just want to be on time for the fastball, and he was doing a good job of making it look like a fastball out of the hand a lot of the time," said Carpenter. "I chased a couple and wish I would’ve trusted my hands a little more there, but he stuck to his plan and it was clearly just soft, soft, soft and it ended up working out for him."
Gilbert mostly breezed through the Tigers' lineup for six innings in yet another frustrating night for Detroit's hitters. He threw 85 pitches, only 22 of which were fastballs. The Tigers went quietly until the ninth. They're now hitting .191 in six playoff games. They have no choice but to flush it, with their season on the line Wednesday.
"It’s easier to do in the postseason," said Spencer Torkelson, "because the only thing that matters is the next pitch."
"Everybody has to realize how good they are," said Carpenter, "realize why we’re in this position in the first place, in the ALDS. We’ve had a lot of success this season at the plate."
But not a lot recently; really not a whole lot in the second half. The Tigers struggled at the plate in September when they lost the AL Central to the Guardians, which has carried into the playoffs. And there were signs of a slowing offense before that. The Tigers went from sixth in the majors in runs scored and OPS before the All-Star break to 19th in runs and 21st in OPS after it while producing the third highest strikeout rate.
And now they're "facing the best arms in the world," said Torkelson. "We all want to come through really badly. The effort, the focus is there."
Gilbert used the Tigers' urgency against them. The more they started swinging at sliders and splitters, the more he invited them to expand the zone, "and we had a really hard time putting back-to-back at-bats together that were productive," said Hinch. That led to some quick outs and short innings.
"This is the hardest time to hit," said Hinch. "When you're facing high-end pitching in October, it's a grind. Obviously their guys are really talented and are exposing a little bit of the zone control that we talk about all the time, where those who win the strike zone usually win the competition."
The Tigers have faced three high-quality starters this series in Gilbert, Luis Castillo and George Kirby. They'll get a reprieve on Wednesday against Bryce Miller, who had a 5.68 ERA in 15 starts this season.
"Our confidence level has to be high," said Carpenter. "It doesn’t matter who we’re facing or what happened tonight. We can’t get confidence from results, because results aren’t always going to be there."
Torkelson insists the Tigers are close to breaking through with a barrage of clutch hits, "really close." Their season now depends on it.
"We haven't strung together as many great at-bats as we would like but we have to tip our hat to some really good pitching staffs," said Carpenter. "I don’t know what else to chalk it up to, but we have one more game, at least, to turn it around."